03 - Lorad, The Capital of the Mattel Kingdom

------------ POV Axel ------------------

After traveling for two days without problem, we have arrived our destination. Lorad City is the capital of Mattel Kingdom. It has population of 500.000+ and the city has build in a good way. The roads weren't cramped, there wasn't any unpleasant smell and the buildings were almost identical to the Eastern buildings of my past life.

"Ah this city looks really beautiful princess." I said looking around.

"Of course, my parents spend lots of time and golds to make the city this clean and beautiful!" said princess raising her chin proudly.

"Before the current Royal Family, the city was in mess. Every corner of city was smelling, the buildings were leaning each other, roads were always cramped and because of that merchants stopped coming to our city." said Lucas.

"What do you mean before?" I asked looking at the Lucas.

"Mattel family was duchy, due to royal family neglecting common folks and nobles, Mattel family took the lead and started rebellion against royal family. Royal family lost the support from most of the noble clans, even half of the royal guards were missing. After the wars for a week royal family and supporting clans defeated. Execution of royal family and the supporting clans done in public. Everyone was watching, I can still remember those days. But its truly beautiful times now." said Lucas smiling.

'The King is smart guy, worthy of becoming friend.' i thought smiling.

After few minutes of riding with the royal guards escorting us, we came to the second largest building in the city.

King's Palace, It was huge building painted in white with golden carvings and golden dome sitting on the roof.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I saw man looks in his 50s with grey hair coming towards us. He stopped in front of the princess and said with deep bow.

"His Royal Majesty the King is waiting, Princess Elena." And Elena started walking towards the palace followed by maids. The royal butler came to me and with slight bow,

"Please follow me, sir." said and started walking. I gave orders to my group then started following the butler.We walked for about 5 minutes, then he brought me to a luxurious looking room.

"Do you want anything to drink sir." He asked to me.

"No need, thank you."

I looked around and saw the desk on my left side, behind the desk was book shelves full of books. On the right side of the bookshelves there was a banner hanging from top. I took a look at the banner and saw an arm holding the sword high, surrounded by angel wings supporting the hand.

I turned my right side and saw the drawings on the wall, then started studying the drawings. One of the drawing attracted my attention, it was the drawing of a battlefield commanded by a middle-aged looking man wearing golden armor with cape.

The sound of the door opening pulled me out of my thoughts. I turned around and saw the man in the drawing coming in with the princess and guards following closely.

"I presume you are Sir Alex." Said the man. He had black hair and blue eyes just like his daughter. He was wearing black suit with red stripes drawing cross in the middle, and there was golden robe with white crown in the middle.

"Yes your majesty." I replied with slight bow. My behavior made king and his guards frown.

"Don't you know how to greet the king!" said the guard in front them.

"I certainly don't know, there wasn't king or noble in my homeland and everyone was equal." I said and saw the king smiling then he signaled guards to leave. After the guards left the king sat down to the chair behind his desk. Signaling me to take a sit. I sat down and looked at the king waiting for him to speak.

"So you came from that nobles didn't exist and everyone is equal. Just the sound of it is terrifying to be true. How can everyone be equal where someone is ruling the country, someone is working in construction and the other is going from wars to the other.Anyways let me introduce myself, I'm the King of the Mattel Kingdom, Elijah Arlo Mattel."

"I thank you for saving and escorting my daughter. Of course you will be rewarded handsomely before leaving." said the Elijah.

"It was nothing actually just an encounter, but sending your daughter without royal guards is really reckless move." I said and looked at him seriously. Who could send his daughter to her death.

"Of course she wasn't alone, she was traveling with her royal carriage and guards but the neighboring kingdom declared war on us. She was ambushed on her way here. Thankfully they managed to escape but except for the 5 guards you saw the rest were killed. If you weren't there saving them from bandits they would be dead too." He said looking at his daughter with sad look. Before I could answer one of the guards rushed inside panicking.

"My King, our scouts spotted Baros army coming in the direction of capital." said the guard in one breath. King hastily got up from his seat and rushed out followed by his daughter and the guard. I was sitting there looking at their backs. I got up and thought about helping them and heard the system quest notification. I opened the system and took a look.

[Main Mission : Someone dares the attack your friend. As a friend you are obligated to help him.

Objective: Defeat the next siege of the Baros Kingdom.

Rewards: 500.000 S.P., x2500 Elite Cavalryman, x1 Legendary Leader Summoning, +50 Relationship with Elijah Mattel.]

'What's with that mission explanation, who is my friend we barely chatted for five minutes.' I thought as I saw butler coming towards me.

"Sir Axel, please follow me to receive the reward." he said and we started walking.

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---------- POV Elijah Arlo Mattel ------------

"What's the situation right now." I said as sat down on my throne looking at my ministers and commanders.

"My King, we spotted an army of 20.000 with the siege equipments marching towards us right now. If they keep moving like that they will arrive in a week." Said my General Charlie. He is the head of kingdom's armies.

"My King, we need to gather every one of the soldiers we have otherwise the capital will fall." said the Minister of Defence Eli.

"How many man can we gather?" I asked looking at them.

"Right now we have 5.000 soldiers stationed in the capital. If we start recruiting mercenaries we could make this number rose to the 6.500. Unless we call back the stationed soldiers from other fortresses and cities we can't make up to that number." said Charlie. Just after he finished a guard rushed inside quickly bowing.

"My King, sorry for the intruding but the soldiers from the nearby fortress came here and they're all wounded. We placed them in training ground right now." he finished speaking and we all got up rushing to the training ground where the wounded soldiers waiting.

After a minute of walking in hurried steps we have arrived to the training ground. There was soldiers everywhere laying and sitting bandaged. I saw commander rushing towards me he came in front me and kneeled before speaking.

"My King, the wanderers attacked with surprise assault at night they managed to get inside of the fortress and we couldn't fight back. Of the 2.000 garrison 1.000 of them killed and 500 of them heavily injured." said the general kneeling.

"Wanderers? What the hell." said the Eli with shocked expression.

"They probably bribed by the Baros Kingdom. I will send messengers to the other fortress my king." said Charlie as he gave bow and rushed out.

"Alright focus on healing the soldiers we have war coming to us." I said as I turned around and started walking towards to my wife's work room.

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------------------- POV MC ------------------

After getting my escort reward of 2.000 gold I gathered my man and started walking in the city. In ten minutes of walking we bought supplies and horses for everyone . Then we started riding the horses to get out of the city.

After ten minutes of riding we finally got out and started riding towards the woods we saw. After another few minutes of riding we reached the woods and set up a camp.

I called the system to check my rewards.

[Main Mission : As the future Lord connections are as important as the resources. Accompany princess to the capital of the Mattel Kingdom.

Mission Completed. Do you wish to withdraw x1 Paladin Helmet?]

'Yes withdraw the reward.' I thought and the next moment something appeared on my head. I took off the helmet and looked at it. It was dark red helmet with empty space for eyes to see and had wings on each side. The wings and around of the empty place were painted in white.

Then I checked my S.P.

[Remaining S.P.= 5300]

'The Baros Kingdom probably coming here with large army so if I want to give them a blow I need to be cunning.' I thought as I started searching through the soldier list. Next moment I smiled because I saw the best unit for this job.

[Trained Ninja - 250] I decided to summon 10 of them

[Remaining S.P. = 2800] and the remaining of the S.P. I will hold them for now.

The next moment 10 ninja appeared in front of me. They were dressed in full black and you could only see their eyes.

They kneeled and pledged loyalty to me. I ordered them to scout nearby and called one of the knights to the sparring.

While sparring I could feel my body constantly getting stronger. If I could use my potential in a correct way even taking down hundreds of elite soldiers wouldn't be a dream.

After the ten minutes of sparring I started doing exercises. Doing pushups and squats with my equipments fully equipped. After half an hour torturing my body I decided to sleep and ordered the swordsman and ninjas to guard the camp in turns.